Life

Gundulf was a monk of Bec Abbey in Normandy and a friend, pupil and also chamberlain of Lanfranc. He was a monk of St. Etienne in Caen before he came to England in 1070, as one of several clergy from Bec and St Etienne. He was one of the most important of those chosen by Lanfranc to help him with the reorganisation of English monasticism, as Lanfranc had been charged to do, following his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury by King William I.

In 1075 at Lanfranc's instigation, King William I agreed to the appointment of Gundulf as Bishop of Rochester and Gundulf was consecrated on 19 March 1077. Earlier that year Lanfranc had recovered much of the lands once belonging to St. Andrews Church at Rochester from the king's half-brother Odo and when Gundulf was enthroned Lanfranc endowed much of this property back to the church. This restored income enabled Gundulf to start reconstruction work on the almost derelict church building in 1080.